Wednesday, March 01, 2006

I recently guessed that no more than half of my students could read the texts we give them.

According to a recent report by the prestigous non-profit ACT, "just half of high school graduates are prepared to do the sort of reading of complex texts that is typically required in the first year of college or upon entering the work force. The testing service found that only 51 percent of the 1.2 million students who took the ACT in 2005 met its “college readiness” standard, and that students seem actually to be going backwards: More students are on track to do college-level reading in the 8th and 10 grades than are actually ready to do so by graduation time."

Can I call 'em or what?Blame the high schools.Well, and us for taking them and trying to ignore the problem.Sorry for more depressing news.

I think you'll find anti-intellectualism in any large state university, since they have a long statistical "tail," if you know what I mean. You'll find dedicated students, but they are relatively fewer in a huge way.

I guess I'll never understand people who will pay $2,000 a class to do something that goes so strongly against their deeply held conviction that "reading is gay" and trying is for suckers and so forth. It's sort of like joining a softball team and then complaining incessantly that you hate running and the team had better think of a way for you to play without actually having to run.